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The
Wisconsin Forward Award is the state level framework of the Malcolm Baldrige
framework. I have had some experience using the Baldrige framework with
companies in India, Indonesia, Thailand, Egypt, Australia, and the USA and
confirm that it takes a lot to progress on the Excellence journey.

The
excellence journey is like running a marathon. The first mile hurts. Your
body aches and screams. This part is very physical. You have to overcome this
phase to get to the next. Most people quit here. Similarly, in an organizational
excellence journey the first phase is the most chaotic. People challenge what
you want to do. There is pain all around. You will try various methods and some will fail. But as a change agent and leader if
you patiently manage to overcome this phase, you will be on your way.

Once
you are through with the intense physical phase while running your body gets
into motion. It is warmed up and your feet and arms fall in sync. You breathe
comfortably and before you realize you are cruising. Pain reduces and you begin
to enjoy the view. The same happens in an organizational excellence journey. Your
detractors have either joined you or quit. There is not much pain. Your plans
are working and slowly but surely results are showing. You will find a winning method here. This is the phase where
your mental strength pulls you along.

A lot of people who overcome the physical part
manage to finish the mental part. But to kick into a higher gear you need
emotional strength. This is where your body doesn’t fail but your feelings
could fail you. You have doubts about
completing the run. Similarly in the organizational journey this is where the
struggle to accelerate begins. You know you can run the course but your mind is
failing. There are doubts from the few setbacks on the way.

If you are able to overcome the emotional churn during
the run you could find yourself on a spiritual last phase. You cruise in a
state of Zen. You are not too bothered about competition. The last few miles
seem no effort at all. This is what happens in the organizational excellence
journey as well. In this spiritual phase
you get the results you want. You are patient if you don’t get results that you
hoped. You are happy for others in the industry.

Let’s take the long distance running and organizational
excellence analogy a bit further. Just like you cant just get up one day and
run a marathon, you can’t just decide to be on the organizational journey all
of a sudden. If you have to run you have to make sure you prepare yourself with
small daily drills, warm-ups, getting fitter, and motivating yourself. You will
do the same in an organizational excellence journey – get fitter using Kaizen,
reward mechanisms to motivate people, communicate to clarify your goals,
involve all around then. Then you start practicing.

Remember, like in running, you can’t just run long
distance on motivation. You got to be in shape as well.

At Infosys, while I was heading the Baldrige
implementation across the company there were some who did not buy in. But
others did. I focused on those who bought in. While consulting with the Aditya
Birla group I was able to use a steady deployment approach over two-three years
to help four companies win the Deming Application Prize. All these companies
gained financially as well.

In my experience in implementing Baldrige framework I
realized that patience and persistence are just as important as knowledge and
motivation.